In Waltham Forest; health services are purchased or commissioned by Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group (WFCCG). WFCCG is led by local GPs and is a part of the National Health Service. The CCG plans and buys healthcare services on behalf of residents of Waltham Forest who are registered with a local GP. This includes planned and emergency hospital care, rehabilitation, most community services and mental health and learning disability services. The CCG is responsible for the commissioning of the above services.

Waltham Forest CCG works in close partnership with the Local Authority to help improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of children and young people. The partnership arrangements between health and social care services aim to support children and young people as close to home as possible; and by working together with families, children and young people in person-centred ways.

Which organisations provide services

Waltham Forest Health community health services are provided by North East London foundation Trust (NELFT) and hospital services from Barts Health NHS Trust. These commissioning arrangements are usually organised through contracts with the hospitals and the community health providers.

How to Access Services

To access any health services, you (or the child/young person) will need to be registered with a GP within the borough. Some specialist services will also have entry criteria based on the level of health need. Information about specific entry criteria is provided on the detailed page for each service.

Continuing Care is a way of funding health care packages for babies, children and young people (from birth to 18 years old) with complex healthcare needs whose needs cannot be met by existing mainstream or specialist health services. These complex needs may be as a result of disability, accident or illness.

Children and Young People are assessed using the National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care (DOH 2016). This framework is designed to support Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in determining if a child’s needs are such that they can only be met through a package of continuing care.

The framework also sets out an equitable, transparent and timely process for assessing, deciding and agreeing these bespoke packages of care.

Each care package will be commissioned to meet the individual needs of each child/young person and their family and can involve health education and social care.

If you feel that you, a family member or someone you care for may be eligible for NHS CHC, please speak to your community nurse or your GP about an assessment.

A personal health budget (PHB) is an amount of money to support your identified health and wellbeing needs which is planned and agreed between you and your local NHS team. The aim of a personal health budget is to give people with long term conditions and disabilities greater choice and control over the healthcare and support they receive. Children and young people who are eligible for Children’s Continuing Care have the right to a personal health budget. The NHS is extending the scope of personal health budgets and more details about this will be made available in due course.

The Transforming Care programme aims to improve the lives of children, young people and adults with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviours that could be described as challenging, including those with a mental health condition.

The programme has three key aims:

To improve quality of care for people with a learning disability and/or autism

To improve quality of life for people with a learning disability and/or autism

To enhance community ability and reducing the number of people going into hospital inappropriately and staying there too long.

Care Education and Treatment Reviews (CETR) were introduced to help people in hospital, to prevent unnecessary admissions into hospital and where people do need to go into hospital to support there being clearly specified intended treatment outcomes and a discharge plan.

The Designated Medical Officer (DMO) is a community paediatrician and Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) is an experienced paediatric therapist who both have a dedicated role in providing a link between the Local Authority and Health services for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

The DMO/DCO have a key role is supporting Waltham Forest CCG to meet its statutory responsibilities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and agreeing the relevant health services within an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.

The DMO/DCO oversees the processes for Health information being shared with Education. They act as a point of contact for others involved in the care of children and young people with additional needs on matters related to health and education, for example, local authorities, schools, colleges, voluntary services.